Maria Zondervan
St. Johns River WMD

 

Bachelor of Science, 1996
Major: Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

 

Upon graduating from WEC in 1996, I worked as a Biological Scientist in the Ocala Regional office in the Bureau of Wildlife Diversity Conservation of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission . My main responsibility was to respond to public concerns pertaining to wildlife. This taught me a great deal about how the general public perceives wildlife. I also assisted with gopher tortoise, osprey, and burrowing owl relocation projects, conducted wading bird, shore bird, and bat surveys, carried out field studies of red-cockaded woodpeckers (RCWs), and participated in controlled burning. After approximately 3 years of valuable experience, I took a new position with the St. Johns River Water Management District within their Division of LandManagement and moved up to my current position of Land Use Coordinator. My time is split 50/50 between

Maria preparing to conduct
an aerial prescribed fire
from a helicopter.

the office and the field and I cover parts of 19 different counties. In addition to managing the District's hunting and nuisance hog control programs, I deal with a wide variety of wildlife projects such as RCW, burrowing owl, and scrub-jay monitoring, and eagle and alligator nest surveying. I'm also involved with passive recreation (could you define this?), aerial prescribed fire, wildland firefighting, and endangered species protection. I love my job and encourage others to pursue this line of work!

 

Maria B. Zondervan, Land Use Coordinator
St. Johns River Water Management District
Altamonte Springs Service Center
Division of Land Management
975 Keller Road
Altamonte Springs, FL 32714-1618
(407) 659-4872
mzondervan@sjrwmd.com